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Plot

Lucy, having been awakened from within Nyu, grins while shrouding a good portion of her face. Kouta asks her about what was wrong while she unleashes her vectors against him, Yuka and the visiting Mayu, only to restrain herself at the last second when she recognizes Kouta's face and flashes back to a childhood image of him screaming at her to stop. She mutters "I see..." and withdraws from the room, leaving the others to wonder what's going on with her. Yuka mentions having seen a dog on a leash outside the gates, and Mayu describes Wanta as not being her pet, but as her friend, since they are always together.

As she was going outside the house, Lucy encounters a yelping, tied-up Wanta. She stares at him and uses her vectors on him in an unseen manner, and then leaves the Maple House. Yuka leaves the room to prepare lunch, which causes Mayu's hunger to audibly and visibly reveal itself. An embarrassed, but ultimately grateful Mayu tries and fails to talk them out of giving her lunch, in which she finds delicious since she hasn't eaten a meal that wasn't bread crumbs in a long time. Kouta wonders if the food is that good, saying it's not that great, and provokes Yuka in doing so since he's wounded her pride. The cousins discuss the problem of living expenses, the need to ask her family to contribute. Yuka begins to yell at him, embarrassed over a remark about them already being married and with her rattling off a list of supposed wrongs on his part, while Mayu watches and is somewhat amused. She asks Mayu for her name and age, and Kouta asks if she lives nearby. Ashamed over her homelessness, Mayu excuses herself when asked about how they might contact her if they needed more information about the night on the beach. Left alone, the two quickly recognize that she deliberately avoided telling them almost anything, and infer that there must be a reason for it.

"Oh crap, I owe that guy money. I better skedaddle."

Mayu briefly panics when she finds out that Wanta is no longer on the leash, but is overjoyed when she (and the reader) see that Lucy did not hurt him and sliced off his leash instead. Alone and confused by the Mayu and Nyu's behaviors, Kouta and Yuka have a long discussion. Yuka shocks him by asking him if Nyu's breast felt good, despite his protests that Nyu was the one behind that. She shocks him even further by asking him if he wants to feel hers as well to test his feelings for her. Kouta has no answer.

Trivia

This chapter provides the first hint of a previous connection between Lucy and Kouta. It is also the first time we see the Diclonii's tendency not to hurt any animals. Mayu's reluctance to either accept help or talk about her life is shown clearly for the first time as well.

The chapter cover is of Mayu, possibly leaning over to hide her underwear, standing by a fence, perhaps overlooking the beach that was still her home at this point.